Lorelle is banding a Purple Martin near a wetland to be able to track it’s movements in the future If scientists are to better understand avian populations, the habitat qualities and the relative availability of food necessary for their survival must be assessed simultaneously. It’s no surprise that aerial insectivores being the most rapidly declining group of birds in North America. Purple Martins have historically depended on wildfires to clear open areas for better hunting grounds, but with the onset of fire-suppression efforts across the west these birds are more reliant on clearcuts typical of industrial forestlands. Couple these regional patterns with the recent global finding that flying insect populations (Martins’ food source is exclusively from eating insects while in-flight) in the tropics are expected to decline as much as 20%, and from 1989-2016 German nature preserves have documented a 75% decline flying insects biomass. Here is a classic yummy meal for the bird.Īlthough humans are supplementing places for these birds to nest, high quality habitat in forested areas are shrinking because our natural ecosystems are in peril. Purple Martins are aerial insectivores meaning they only eat insects while they are in flight. Conversely, along the west coast of the US they generally utilize cavities in snags (standing dead trees) as their nesting site, but adding backyard bird boxes for the Purple Martin are becoming more common. Therein lies the problem – these birds are common on the east coast because they completely depend on habitat provided to them by humans some researchers worry they have lost the generational knowledge of going to the forest to find suitable homes. So much so that on the east coast of the US they live almost exclusively in bird boxes. The Purple Martins often nest in groups to help protect each other from predators, their colonial personalities help generate southing chitchat between birds, and they’re very happy to live in artificial nest boxes. ![]() These are birds with an eye-popping iridescent blue-purple body, sleek black wings with a forked tail that aid in its magnificent maneuverability allowing them to fly at speeds of 45 mph or faster. Photos curtsey of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Male Purple Martins who are the largest birds in the Swallow group.
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